Justices Pass On Challenge To Wiretap Case

February 20, 2008|By David G. Savage Los Angeles Times

WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court on Tuesday dismissed a challenge to President Bush's order authorizing the interception of some phone calls and e-mails within the United States, dealing another defeat to civil libertarians who say the president violated the law.

The court's refusal to hear the case is a victory for the White House and the president's use of his powers as commander in chief. Though not a ruling on the legality of Bush's wiretapping policy, it all but forecloses a successful legal attack on it before the president leaves office early next year. In the meantime, Congress and the White House are negotiating new rules for electronic eavesdropping.

From the beginning, this dispute has turned not on whether phone calls or e-mails can be intercepted but on whether a judge must approve it. The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978 said the president may order secret wiretapping within the United States to catch foreign agents or terrorists, but only with the approval of a special court.

Shortly after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, Bush secretly bypassed this law and ordered the National Security Agency to intercept messages coming into or going out of this country if it "reasonably believed" they were linked to terrorism.

The president said he did so to protect the nation from another attack, and he did not inform the FISA judges of the new policy. Bush argued also that his authority as commander in chief gave him the power to act in the nation's defense.

SUPREME COURT ALSO

* Refused to intervene in lawsuits by Hurricane Katrina victims that seek to force insurers to pay for damages from the flooding that followed the failure of New Orleans' levees.

* Stepped into a dispute over a labor union's use of fees paid by non-union employees to finance the labor organization's court battles in other states.

* Agreed to consider whether evidence must be suppressed when authorities base an arrest on incorrect information from police files.

* Said it would decide a dispute between Montana and Wyoming over water rights in two rivers that flow through both states.